Three Beating Hearts by L A Tavares

Author:L A Tavares [Tavares, L A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group
Published: 2022-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Stasia

The lights are still dark on stage, and the venue plays an assortment of songs that the crowd sings along to. I pace in the wing.

I’d love to say Dom’s words didn’t affect me, but I’m only human.

“You okay?” Blake joins me in the wings. “You’re straying from your usual pre-show rituals.”

“Oh.” I check my watch. Only seconds until we go on and I haven’t done any of my usual routine. “I’m fine…just distracted.”

I look past Blake as we speak and watch Dom as he drums his sticks off a nearby wall. He doesn’t look at me. I’m so used to stolen glances and intense eye contact from across rooms that I had to wonder if he’d still be trying to make an across-the-room connection. He’s not.

“I’ll be fine.” I force a grin and Blake squeezes my upper arm before going to finish up his own pre-show business.

We take the stage, and the crew lights up the area only fractionally. Enough that the crowd can tell there’s people on it, but not enough to guarantee which one of us is which. They scream and applaud, and Dom plays a light, tempting beat while the rest of us get set. I turn my head over my shoulder to take one last, long look at him. He doesn’t look up. He doesn’t wink like he usually does. He didn’t walk me out onto the stage and let his hand fall down my back as we part the way he has in the few shows I’ve done with them.

I’ve seen the videos of both Xander and Blake’s worst shows. I wonder if this is how they felt in those moments—lost, like they don’t know which way is up. Confused, like they don’t know if the things they had grown used to were gone forever.

I make a choice in that moment. He doesn’t deserve to cut me down at the knees or make me feel like I, in any way, have to perform poorly because of him.

He won’t get my worst show. Not tonight.

So, I give him my best.

It’s my most spectacular appearance to date. I usually try to let Xander take the lead and I fade into the background. I’m the extra. That’s been my role, and I’ve accepted that. But tonight I’m feeling extra nonexpendable. I take on as much of the show as I can handle while still letting Xander claim the front and center spot. Later, he grabs my attention and waves me up to the front. We play our guitars, facing each other, sharing a mic and singing in this way where we’re both competing to be heard over the other but equally complimenting each other’s unique sounds.

I realize, about halfway through, that I’m not performing for the crowd. I’m performing for Dom. He’d avoided looking at me all night until now, but now he can’t look away. I use the power in these songs written about missed opportunities to turn so I’m partially facing him, and even though nobody else in the sea of thousands knows I’m singing directly to him, he does.

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